


Assorted Drabbles and Vignettes

by DrJekyl



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Drabbles, F/F, Family Fluff, First Kiss, Fluff, Gen, General Shenanigans, Honeymoon, Mythology - Freeform, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 17:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17047091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrJekyl/pseuds/DrJekyl
Summary: Drabbles and short one-shots.1. The Bedtime Agenda: When given a choice between reading about Protheans and sleep, Liara will pick Protheans every time.2. Secluded.  Aethyta and Benezia try to make a theatre date while on the asari equivalent of a honeymoon.'3. Three drabbles.





	1. The Bedtime Agenda (Benezia, adolescent Liara)

**Author's Note:**

> Reposts from tumblr, for the most part.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When given a choice between reading about Protheans and sleep, Liara will pick Protheans every time.

She had to clear her throat twice to be heard over the sound of the music, some manner of batarian-influenced sugar-syntho-pop which was either coming into or going out of fashion; which of those two it was Benezia could not rightly say.

“Mother!” Liara started guiltily, fumbling both her datapad and her glass.  “You’re home early.”

“I’m not, actually.”  Her aching feet and back were a testament to that as much as the starry night sky beyond the walls of their home.  “Bed now, hmm?”

Liara’s eyes flickered to the chronometer on the cluttered table beside her bed.

“Oh.  Um. Yes.  Sorry. I guess I got caught up in my new book.”  She quickly sent the book back to the start and held the datapad aloft for inspection. The distance was too great for Benezia to make out anything but the title, advertising  _ Ancient Aliens: The Inusannon Agenda _  for anyone who cared to see.   “Did you know that they found a planet in the Omega Nebula containing relics that were _even older_ than the Protheans?  Fragments of ships, mostly.”

“I had heard of such a place,” Benezia conceded, moving into the room.

“They think a great battle was fought there between two different species.”

“I see.” 

She paused, briefly debating whether to probe for more detail or curtail the conversation in favour of her own bed.   In the end, her inner teacher won out, primarily due to the title of the book.  Any so-called ‘agenda’ that wasn’t eventually followed by a set of minutes was, in her experience, deeply suspect.

“And who is the ‘they’ that thinks this?  How do you know they speak with authority?”

“The Protheans, Mother.  Ibara T’Muln discovered the remains of a Prothean research station on the planet and managed to translate a small cache of documents.   Our own recent observations back theirs up.” 

Benezia held out her hand; with some reluctance Liara handed the datapad over.  The bright screen died when she thumbed the power switch and left the device atop a handy, high shelf.

“The book  _ is _ a bit sensationalist in tone,” Liara conceded, “but the truth is in there too, more or less. I’ve checked some of the secondary sources and they’re good.”

“Good.  You can-“ She felt the yawn building, but wasn’t quite able to stop from bursting forth it in time.  “You can tell me more about it in the morning then.”

It was an offer she’d probably come to regret on at least some level.  Breakfast was one of the few quiet times she had left to herself these days, a moment to reflect and mentally prepare for the coming day.  Inviting Liara to speak about anything related to Protheans was more or less asking for at least an hour of enthusiastic lecture uninterrupted by such mundane concerns as breathing.  

On another level, part of her was desperately aware that maidenhood was fast approaching, and she should be thankful that Liara was willing to spend time with her without itching to be elsewhere.

“I’d like that,” Liara beamed. “Are you for bed now too?  You look tired.”

“Mm.  It took rather longer for the board to reach consensus than I would have liked.” 

She waved any further comments or questions away, stifling another yawn.

“Goodnight, Little Wing.”

Liara rolled her eyes at the nickname. She baulked at it, increasingly, for all that Benezia found that it suited her more as the years went by.  But then Liara had no real idea of how it had come to be.  Another few decades, and perhaps she'd be old enough to understand.

“Sleep well, Mother.”

“And you.  I will see you again with the dawn.”

“And I, you.”


	2. Secluded (Aethyta/Benezia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aethyta and Benezia try to make a theatre date while on the asari equivalent of a honeymoon.

“We’re gonna be a late,” Aethyta said from her observational post, lounging in the doorway.

Benezia didn’t even glance away from the mirror, applying blush with fierce concentration.  The bonding bracelet, a hollow platinum band containing the traditional woven threads, glinted on her wrist.  Aethyta idly ran her fingers over the matching one at her own wrist, thew new weight unfamiliar but somehow deeply comforting.

“There’s plenty of time still,” she replied. Snapping the blush case closed, she finally turned towards Aethyta. “And anyway, I seem to recall you saying that you’d prefer to stay in tonight.  Again.”

Her smile, the amused glint in her eyes took any sting out of the words. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t been an enthusiastic participant -or instigator- these past ten days.  The whole point of the Seclusion period might have been to spend time away from friends and family to concentrate on their new bonding, but she and Nezzy hadn’t even really made it out of bed until the end of day three, and tonight would mark the first day of actually leaving their hotel suite.  There hadn’t really been much of a need, let alone a  desire to do so until now.

“Yeah, but now that we’re going, we need to be on time.  ’s not polite, otherwise.”

“True enough,” Benezia conceded.  "Hanar can be quite-“

"Anal?”

“-punctilious about punctuality at the best of times.  And we don’t want to get locked out until interval and miss the first third”

A quick pass with the lipstick and Benezia was apparently done, capping the container and dropping it in her purse.

“There,” she said, turning away from the mirror.  "How do I look?“

"You fishing for compliments, T'Soni?”

“Of course.  If I can’t look to my bondmate for flattery, whatever is the point?”

Her the dress, sheer golden silk, just the right colour to set off her skin, clung to her curves like it'd been painted on.  The slit up one side went invitingly all the way up to her hip; the v-cut of the top half bared the rounded curve of each breast and the line of her flat stomach, all the way to her navel.  Gloves, to her elbows completed the ensemble, lacking any jewelry but the bracelet on her right. The tattoos that typically darkened her face were temporarily gone in the hopes of maintaining some measure of anonymity for the seclusion period, revealing her natural, subtle markings and making her look more like the matron she was rather than the matriarch people expected her to be.

All in all - and coupled with that smile - the effect was enough to take Aethyta’s breath away, and make her fingers itch to touch her, lips to kiss her. Somehow she’d managed to land the whole package: brainy, funny, and hot as all hell.

But Nezzy didn’t need to hear that right away.  Aethyta crossed her arms.

“You’re gonna get cold.”

Benezia’s pout somehow only made her seem even more attractive, and Aethyta had to fight the urge to swoop in and gather her up and carry her right back to the bed.

“Far be it from me to question the wisdom of my honoured elder,” Benezia murmured.

She produced a shawl from her purse and draped it artfully across her shoulders.  Her next look at Aethyta was one of askance, and Aethyta gave into the urge to slip into the bathroom proper and steal a kiss, winding her arms around Benezia's waist.  Her _bondmate's_ waist.  Goddess, that was going to take some getting used to.  In a good way.

“Babe, you’d look great in unwashed vorcha tribal wear.  I don’t have words for you in this getup.”

Benezia beamed at the compliment and rewarded it with a kiss of her own that lingered and quickly deepened.  When they parted, Nezzy’s fingers found the collar of Aethyta’s jacket, capturing it in both hands and tugging it straighter.

“You look wonderful as well.  White suits you.”

“I bet I look even better in blue,” Aethyta countered, waggling her eyebrows to make her intentions obvious.

Benezia laughed and pushed her gently away.

“We’d be late.  They run on galactic, not Thessian time here, and I  _ would _ actually like to see the performance.”

Time management, of all things, had been one of the hardest adjustments for Aethyta to make when it came to moving to the homeworld.  Things tended to happen on Thessia when they happened, for the most part, and said happenings also tended to occur in a fashion that could only be described as ‘unhurried’.  She was used to aliens, who tended to set a lot of store in keeping time. Probably because they had so little of it. For asari, though, there was always tomorrow.

They could probably get tickets for the show tomorrow, now that she thought about it.  Or a vid of it.

“All the more reason to stay in,” Aethyta purred, stepping forward to recapture dark lips.  "Stay here, order up some food, a bit of wine, let me peel you back out of that dress-“

”-and get tickets for tomorrow night instead?“  Nezzy’s brow quirked. "Tempting, but it’s the last night with the current cast. It’s unlikely that they will all ever share the same stage again.”  Her lips curved into a wicked smile again, and she ran her hands down the front of Aethyta’s jacket, eyes following the path they took over the swell of her breasts and down.  Her eyes held a hint of dark hunger when she looked back up, colouring her voice as well.   “Besides,” she continued, “the end result should still be the same. Though I may do some of the peeling.  Blue  _ does _ rather suit you.”

Aethyta grinned.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”  

Pleasant anticipation pooled warm in her belly under the undisguised heat of Benezia’s gaze, and Aethyta knew that if she chose to press the issue again that there was a good chance they’d end up back in bed for another round, plans for a play and dinner be damned.  But then they probably would miss the show entirely, and the show  _ was _ part of the reason why Nezzy had chosen this resort in the first place.  

Besides, sometimes gratification delayed was gratification doubled.

Aethyta took a large step back, towards the doorway, and held out her hand in invitation.  Benezia took it readily, twining their fingers. From her purse came a length of bright ribbon, which she used to loosely bind their wrists together again, signalling to anyone who looked their way that they were newly bonded and to be left alone.

“Shall we?”  Aethyta asked.

“Lets.”


	3. Drabble Set One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Blessed (prompt: empire)  
> 2\. Should (prompt: funeral)  
> 3\. Third Time's the Real Charm (prompt: first kiss)

**_Blessed_ **

My sisters and I numbered five, all told.  Eldest was I, and strongest in the Goddess’ gifts; I had slain the Mara’s spirit-walker in single combat not ten years before. Freed from the sway of that demon, her unnatural hungers, the Mara begged to join our tribe, so the Goddess might love and bless their children as she did ours.

In peace, we prospered. Our children grew strong, legion.  But my sisters hungered to prove their worth to Athame, and when her spire whispered of a great city across the sea, a queen of dark power, we did not hesitate. 

* * *

  

**_Should_ **

There should have been rain.

There should have been crowds of friends and mourners.

There should have been all of the pomp that state and ceremony could offer.

No.

There should have been a long, graceful procession into old age, and ever greater respect.

There should have been a first grandchild, and perhaps a second and third, and all manner of mischief under a patient but watchful eye.

There should have been lessons to impart, memories to share, some not be truly understood for decades.

And above all else, Liara knew, there should have been a reconciliation much, much sooner. 

* * *

  

**_Third Time’s the_ Real _Charm_**

It’s so cliché when it happens that it probably shouldn’t have. One second Aethyta’s losing an argument about Terminus slavers, the next she’s crushing Benezia to her, mouth hot and hungry. Aethyta parts them just as quickly, shocked.

Disappointed.

This is not how she’d wanted it to be. Not the first time. Not with _her_. But her blood has always run hot, and the krogan in her demands she make defeat punishingly memorable.

The second kiss is much better. A shy smile and a gentle hand at her cheek, drawing her back into some something sweet and soft and sighing.


End file.
